Saturday, July 2, 2016

SAHARA GROUP LAUNCHES "GROOMING FILM ENTRAPRENEURS" PROJECT WITH KUNLE AFOLAYAN

To mark its 20th anniversary, Sahara Group (a leading African energy conglomerate with operations across four continents) under its foundation, has flagged off its entrepreneurship initiative Tagged “Grooming Film Entrepreneurs”, a competition designed to provide a hub for budding film makers to express their skills under the tutelage of ace Nigerian film producer and director, Kunle Afolayan.

The competition is set to run from July 1st 2016 to July 25th 2016 and will require young film makers in Nigeria to channel their creativity into celebrating entrepreneurship in Nigeria by shooting a 15-minute documentary that captures entrepreneurs at work across the nation with the theme: ‘My Nigeria, My Platform…Nigeria through an entrepreneur’s eyes'. The documentaries is expected to highlight the story of Nigerian entrepreneurs, with a focus on how their activities are providing sustainable solutions, creating employment and promoting socio-economic development in the nation.

Speaking at the project flag-off, the Managing Director of the Group, Anthony Youdeowei said the company believes the initiative would help birth success stories that will transform the economic landscape of Nigeria and Africa through the Arts, hence a beautiful opportunity for Sahara

Also speaking on the project, Kunle Afolayan said he was delighted to collaborate with Sahara on the initiative, adding “it has been my lifelong dream to play a role in moulding aspiring film makers and this project with Sahara is the ideal platform that might just produce the next big thing in Nigeria’s movie sector.”

COMPETITION ENTRY DESIGN:

The documentaries will be screened by the multiple award-winning Kunle Afolayan and the overall winner will undergo a mentor-ship program with the leading film producer and director for six (6) months.

Entries are expected from young film makers (35-years and below from across Nigeria) which will be whittled down to a shortlist of 20, a number that is commemorative of Sahara’s 20th anniversary. These 20 entries will then go on to the final stage from where a winner will be selected.

"Most importantly, having improved on overall film making capability, style of storytelling, subject matter interpretation, audio and visual quality, aesthetics as well as understanding of the perspective of a story, the winner will learn the commercial side of film making so that he or she is not just a good film maker, but also be a wealthy film maker'', Kunle Afolayan reiterated.

Kunle Afolayan gained international reputation after Irapada, his 2006 Nigerian supernatural thriller film, won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Film in an African Language. He has produced other award winning movies such as October 1, The Figurine, Phone Swap and The CEO.